Paris Exhibits Showcase Rich and Rare Arab Art

By Simone Fattal

This fall, Paris has witnessed a number of cultural exhibits dedicated to the Arab world. These events usually attract a great number of visitors, especially those held at the Institut du Monde Arabe. (The curators of the other Paris museums are often envious of the large crowds.)

The first of these fall and winter events was a wonderful exhibit at the Bibliothèque Nationale on the art of the Arabic book. Both the BN and the Vatican Library showed some of their best specimens. We admired not only the Korans, but gospels and dictionaries, as well as treatises on geography and natural history. The calligrapher and his collaborative painter, called an illuminator in the West, followed various conventions to produce their art. For example, the name of God is always written with special care; it was a joy to look carefully for the different ways each particular artist chose to write it, one with gold letters, another with red ink. Each ayat, or verse, is separated from the following one with a full stop in the shape of a flower, and one can see the immense visual vocabulary that these artists drew upon. The Koran is divided into 30 chapters, called jiz', and these divisions are noted in the margins, again with extreme freedom - everything from a great space in gold letters to a simple mention. The two opening pages of the Korans look more like paintings than written pages. As Martin Lings states in his lectures on illuminated Korans, these pages are among the most beautiful abstract paintings one can see.

In Arabic natural history or works of medicine, the writer would describe a plant or an animal and then simply state "this is its image" with the drawing following. This drawing tends to be as exact as possible; the drawings of animals are particularly clear and exact, though they take on a whimsical flavor in the case of fables such as "Kalila and Doumna." These illustrations, called miniatures in the West, are really paintings. Painting at the time was confined to the boundaries of the book, for it was nonexistent in the public sphere, where only the calligraphy could render majesty and beauty worthy of representing God and His universe, or even the majesty of a ruler or a country squire. What better thing than the name of God and His Word to represent His Word and the Universe? That is why painting remained an intimate art.

The extent and variety of this art form's themes is a sign of the artist's freedom. Artists depicted scenes of war and of hunts, but also scenes of intimate life: a man and his bride sleeping under their covers, with their slippers showing under the mattress and a servant looking on; a king visiting his beloved, or going with her on a picnic; listening to music; or visiting a Sufi master. There are even scenes of a woman giving birth, while on the upper plane a man, probably her husband, is holding his beads, praying that all goes well, while the doctor is in another room, waiting. The scenes also take place in nature, a nature alive with a myriad of birds, rabbits, or foxes that one has to look for in the delicacy of the landscape. They are hidden under or behind rocks, making each of these paintings a work to decipher and read slowly.

On display at the opening were the famous "Maqamat Al Hariri," illustrated by Al-Wassiti, and a few pages from "Kalila and Doumna." The modern section of the show at the Bibliothèque Nationale included several contemporary artists who work either with calligraphy or their own handwriting, making artists' books: Massoudi of Iraq, Dalloul of Syria, Koreichi of Algeria, and Etel Adnan of Lebanon .

The remarkable luminosity of Etel Adnan's watercolors/scripted work was praised in the catalog and reproduced on a double page. Adnan, who has been illustrating the works of major contemporary poets in makimonos, i.e. Japanese hand-made folding-books, saw her work given a special recognition in this exhibit, with the curators and editors choosing her work to represent the exhibit in their publicity catalog.

The second of these recent Paris exhibits was a small but very interesting one devoted to Zenobia and the kingdom of Palmyra, held in the fifth Arrondissement Civic Center. Although there were few objects, the exhibit included pictures of the first travelers and discoverers of the site at the beginning of the 19th century. It featured tapestries as well as pictures of the Rossini opera influenced by the history of the queen, who, like her ancestor Cleopatra, was a great warrior and an ardent nationalist. Large aerial photographs depicted the site thanks to the work of the French military when they were in Syria. They also discovered this area's particular art, which dates from Roman times but is specific to Palmyra.

We can stay on the Left Bank and go to the Institut du Monde Arabe with its major show of the year, "The Epic of Saladin." The exhibit opened on October 23, 2001, and closed on March 10, 2002. The glory of Saladin, or Salh Eddine al-Ayyoubi, is unparalleled in Arab history; he became the model for chivalry in the West as well. When Saladin was born in 1137, the Arab East was occupied by the Franks. For 40 years after the Crusaders entered Jerusalem in 1099, the Franks had solidly settled in neighboring kingdoms. By the time Saladin died, the Orient had achieved the definitive image it has today, and the Franks were leaving the region for a few centuries.

The exhibit shows the arts in the time of Saladin, a period during which they attained an apogee. Most of the artifacts were from Syria , with only a few from Egypt , and they included a wide variety of ceramic and copper vessels. Weavings played a prominent role as well; among those on display we saw a superb cloth with heraldic emblems, on loan from the New York Metropolitan Museum . This style of silk and linen fabric is the true ancestor of the generic cloth called damasquines and later brocades. (This is the famous Italian fabric "Fortuny," which made Marcel Proust dream that he was seeing the whole of the Orient emerging.) Other fragments had the same decorative elements as some Bedouin dresses that one still sees in Syria today.

In some corners of the museum's rooms, films of the actual sites were shown, featuring commentary by scholars such as André Miquel and others. Video topics included the history of the era and its architecture. The Crusaders built their fortresses on the model of the Arab castles and citadels, a style they took home later - is it far-fetched to suggest that the castle incorporates a military conversion of the minaret?

The real gems of the exhibit were the ceramic and glass vessels. The ceramic was the work of the potters of Raqqua, a northern Syrian town on the Euphrates , which has traditionally produced beautiful earthenware. The vessels feature blue designs adorning the middle of a white field, using motifs of a bird, a peacock, and a sphinx. From humble white and blue, the design progresses to incorporate brown and blue and sometimes black lines circle the motif. Other motifs include a cavalier, a warrior, a flower, and a lion pursuing a rabbit. One also finds green and yellow wares; one depicting a cavalier on his beautiful horse. We follow the incised drawing, feeling the sharpness of the instrument that marked the clay.

Some objects are worthy of special note: a bowl with a lid in the form of a Sultan's turban, which came from the Gulbenkian collection in Lisbon ; and a ceramic lamp with little colored glass windows. Among the white ware, we found a beautiful elephant (white of course) holding on his back a group of musicians playing the ney and percussion instruments. We also admired the small Caledon-colored ceramic side tables, some for the distinct use of the calligraphers with holes for inkpot and pens.

Next to these we saw the manuscript of Ibn Arabi's Diwan. Ibn Arabi lived in the Orient a little after Saladin and was a contemporary of Saladin's son Malek al-Adil. At that time, ceramic design styles became darker, with the use of dark blue with black lines. A special mention should be made of an incredible little statue of a woman breast-feeding her baby. A marvel of delicacy and discretion, light green in color, the woman looks straight ahead, and he baby is really part of her body. I would have thought it unlikely to find this sort of sculpture, due to the pillaging of the Orient first by the Crusaders and then the Mongols, with whole parts of the region's art forever destroyed.

It is therefore all the more precious to be able to admire the perfect, delicate glass cups, ornate with color and painted design, such as the one called the Charlemagne Cup. I am guessing that many of these surviving objects were given as presents and taken West. Syrian glassblowers to this day produce just as perfect vessels, but the richness of the decoration has diminished because there are no rich patrons to support the local industry.

Let us mention the admirable copper vessels with silver inlays, especially one depicting scenes from the "Shahnâmeh," in which the king Gur goes hunting with his favorite harp-player Azadeh. Another is dedicated to Al-Malek al-Nasser (1237-1260), a remnant of a life steeped in the joys and sorrows of war and the hunt.

Based on these and other exhibits, I would define Islamic art as follows: it has a formidable philosophical unity that underlies every form it chooses to take whether it is a ceramic tile, a piece of woven cloth, a carpet, or a copper vessel; it displays extreme elegance, frugal means, rigor, and incisive lines; and it always reflects the tenderness of love and the sweetness of life. The human element is always present, and the human is simple and near, not forboding and terrifying. Islamic art does not exist to impress the viewer. It looks simple, and yet it says it all. With only the means of calligraphy we have the glory and the majesty of the universe. Architecture is not grandiose from the outside, but it is unique in the happiness and comfort one experiences inside.

We all know Islamic architecture is a great contribution to the history of civilization, but for me the ceramics most aptly combine all these qualities and produce an unparalleled excellence. These vessels are not only beautiful and perfect, but tender and human like none found in any other civilization.

This article appeared in Al Jadid (Vol. 8, no. 38, Winter 2002).

Copyright © 2002 by Al Jadid